The Two-Way

1:49 pm

Wed April 4, 2012

'The Dog Ate My Tickets:' This Time, The Mother Of All Excuses Was Real

Imagine you've scored hard-to-get tickets to the Masters golf tournament in Augusta, Ga. Now, imagine you're so excited that you make big a deal out of this: You buy plane tickets, you schedule some golfing of your own, you invite three buddies. And then, one day you get home to find only chewed pieces of the tickets attached to the strings that came with them.

Suddenly, it dawns on you: "The dog ate my tickets."

That's the story Russ Berkman — the owner of a Swiss mountain dog named Sierra — told KJR Sports Radio, a Seattle radio station. Berkman's adventure has been making the rounds today.

"Not knowing what to do next, Berkman told the station, he called his girlfriend, who was at a triathlon in Hawaii.

" 'And she says, 'well, you've got to make the dog puke,' " he told he station.

"This is where some might have given up.

"Not Berkman, who told KJR that he knew veterinarians safely give hydrogen peroxide to dogs as an emetic. He did; 10 minutes later, there on his deck, among the previous contents of Sierra's tummy, was what was left of four Masters tickets."

Berkman, not really sure of what to do, actually pieced the tickets together, managing to re-create about 70 percent of each of the tickets.

He still had to call Augusta and use the mother of all excuses. But he had pictures of the regurgitated tickets, and the ticket office officials took pity, offering to reprint his tickets.